June, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Letter to the Editor: Tom Hyland

This past Sunday was Opening Day at Ellis Park, and while this is rarely a day I mark on my calendar, as someone who loves to follow the major Thoroughbred circuits, I was interested to watch these initial races for the year. This was especially true, given the increased purses that Kentucky put in place, as well as the competition that was set to go that day.

One 2-year-old MSW featured horses trained by such notables as Bill Mott, Ken McPeek, Brian Lynch, Steve Asmussen and Brad Cox. An earlier maiden race on the turf that was won by a Brad Cox-trained colt included a horse trained by Chad Brown. Brown has entries in other races at Ellis this week, so kudos to Ellis for attracting him and other top trainers.

Yet, watching these races was not what I expected, as Ellis ranks with the worst-looking–or certainly the most boring–Thoroughbred tracks in the country. The oval is just plain dull and if you combine that with a video stream that is not as sharp as Churchill, Keeneland, Santa Anita, Belmont, etc, etc, you've got a pretty dismal viewing experience.

A note to the people who manage Ellis Park: how about making just a little effort to beautify the place? Plant some flowers, build a pond or two in the infield, do some serious landscaping. Do something to make your facility seem like a major league race track.

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Study: Can Adoption Combat Wild Horse Overpopulation?

In March of 2020, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) estimated that there were about 95,000 wild horses and burros living on federal land, with an additional 50,000 being kept in holding facilities – more than triple the number of animals for appropriate land management, reports The Horse.

The BLM says that private adoptions of these wild animals are key to controlling the overpopulation problem. Dr. Jill Stowe, a University of Kentucky associate professor of agricultural economics, and Hannah White, Stowe's student, created a survey to determine what horse owners thought about this solution to overpopulation. The team created a survey that was shared on social media to try to determine if enough people were willing to adopt one of these animals to eliminate the excess of animals.

The survey received 2,247 responses from horse owners who were over 18 years old. The research team found that more than 90 percent of those surveyed would be receptive to adopting a wild horse or burro in some capacity.

The scientists also found that “ … respondents are willing to pay an average of $282.03 more for a horse that has received training for basic ground manners and $539.21 more for a horse that has been started under saddle as compared with a completely unhandled horse,” reports Stowe.

Additionally, previous wild horse and burro adopters are willing to pay more, indicating that their first adoption experience was positive.

The team found that the two biggest barriers to adopting a wild horse or burro was accessibility to appropriate facilities and lack of experience, skills and time to start an unhandled horse.

Stowe concluded that if 4 to 5 percent of horse-owning households in the United State adopted one wild horse or burro, the 70,000-animal surplus could be eliminated. She suggested that education of horse owners on adoption requirements, training of horses and targeted information dissemination could help place more wild horses and burros.

Is Your Horse Stressed? Boehringer Ingelheim Has A Special Soundtrack For Them — No, Really

Boehringer Ingelheim is focused on helping keep horses safe and “sound” when it comes to stress with the release of a music track specially designed to help reduce stress in horses. Research shows stress can quickly turn into equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS), with one study showing horses can develop stomach ulcers in as few as five days.

The musical arrangement features soothing music designed with the horse in mind. The track was created by Janet Marlow, sound behaviorist, composer, researcher and founder of Pet Acoustics Inc. Marlow focused on creating rhythms and melodies composed for the listening comfort of the horse, including specific pitch, tone and frequencies. Studies show that playing music can help balance equine behavior because it helps mask outside sounds and vibrations, as well as provide a positive and relaxing effect.

“When Boehringer Ingelheim expressed an interest in doing something to help manage stress in horses, I was extremely interested based on my research in this area,” said Janet Marlow, founder of Pet Acoustics. “It's all about composing music and modifying the decibel and frequency levels of each note for the comfortable hearing range of the animal. Using this process, we have tested music through clinical studies at veterinary hospitals, barns, etc. to see the music elicit a release of physical tensions and stress behaviors.”

To access it, veterinarians and horse owners can visit https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoekmWDxfuaOGuL1ELoPIGQ/videos. Visitors will be able to play the music track and video, as well as gain access to additional resources on stress, EGUS, and ways to help prevent it.

This includes information on the use of Ulcergard^® (omeprazole), to help reduce the creation of acid in a horse's stomach during times of stress, helping to maintain optimal gastric health. For ulcer prevention, horses should be given ULCERGARD once daily during these stressful periods. ULCERGARD is the only prevention for equine gastric ulcers that is proven to be safe, effective and approved by the FDA.

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Ask Your Veterinarian Presented By Kentucky Performance Products: Identifying And Managing White Line Disease

Veterinarians at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital answer your questions about sales and healthcare of Thoroughbred auction yearlings, weanlings, 2-year-olds and breeding stock.

Question: What is white line disease (WLD) and how can it be managed?

Dr. Raul Bras: Horses' hooves are subjected to a variety of influences that can impact soundness, including breed, limb conformation, and environment, which can change the shape of a foot. The function of the hoof can be affected by the environment, discipline, exercise, and farriery. The hoof has the ability to respond relative to its structural characteristics, its natural tolerance of the mechanical challenges, or by adaptation with changes in growth rate and shape. External alterations of the hoof capsule can be evident to the astute eye. However, many crucial changes go unnoticed until lameness or other problems are evident.

Many foot-related lameness involves hoof capsule distortions. Hoof capsule distortions occur when the tensile, compressive, or shearing forces on the hoof exceed the capacity of the hoof capsule components to withstand them. There are three basic situations in which the loading capacity of a structure can be exceeded: normal load on an abnormal structure, abnormal load on a normal structure, and abnormal load on an abnormal structure. The latter is a more reliable recipe for distortion and perhaps outright destruction of the compromised component.

WLD is a syndrome associated with structural defects of specific parts of the hoof and is characterized by progressive hoof wall separation that occurs within the non-pigmented Stratum Medium layer of the hoof wall. WLD describes a set of symptoms, rather than one specific cause of those symptoms.

The name of white line disease should not be confused with the anatomical white line that is visible around the edges of a horse's sole. Rather, it deals with the non-pigmented (or “white”) layer of the hoof wall. The hoof capsule's horn is made of three layers: the stratum externum is the stronger, denser layer of tubules that are pigmented in black feet. The stratum medium is nonpigmented. has a less dense configuration of horn tubules. stratum internum (inner layer) is the laminae and its blood supply that anchors the coffin bone to the wall.

WLD is often confused with laminitis, as the clinical and radiographic evidence are similar with a few key differences. In WLD, the separation seen in the foot will originate from the solar surface, whereas in laminitis, the separation starts in the dermal lamellae and continues distally. The air density line of WLD invades the white softer part of the wall via small breaks in the ground surface, and goes unnoticed for long period of time as the horse shows no evidence of discomfort until the capsular rotation reduces sole depth to a painful level. Capsule rotation occurs within the horn wall with WLD, and within the laminae with laminitis.

WLD has an air density lesion that extends from the ground surface and can have irregular borders, often with considerable debris filling the defect. Laminitis has capsule rotation that occurs within the laminae, and the gas line does not extend to the ground surface even when the coffin bone has penetrated the sole. Only after weeks to months from onset does the defect communicate with the ground surface.

The venogram can provide key information to veterinarians and farriers when diagnosing either laminitis or WLD, as it allows them to see areas that are deprived of blood flow.

WLD and laminitis can occur simultaneously when either is very chronic in nature.

The syndrome was first described by Drs. Ric Redden and Al Gabel in the 1970s after they observed that this defect involved the non-pigmented part of the horn. Biomechanical tests have shown that the non-pigmented portion of the stratum medium is the least rigid area of the hoof wall and has the highest water content, which could play a role in the expression of white line disease.

Redden observed that when WLD happens in one foot only, it tends to be in the hoof with a steeper profile or a club foot shape. Additionally, other researchers found a connection between the symptoms of WLD and a fungal infection called onychomycosis. Since then, we have learned the fungus is probably common in equine hooves but isn't present in all cases of WLD. Additional research has searched for an association between symptoms and different types of bacteria, the theory being the symptoms may be a sign of a bacteria that destroys hoof horn. Of course, like fungi, bacteria are also very common in a horse's environment and the bacteria that have been studied seem to be present in some cases of WLD, but not all of them. It seems more likely that bacteria are secondary opportunists which add more damage to a weakened hoof wall but aren't the main cause of damage

As with many other types of foot-related lameness, prevention is much more effective than treatment. Prevention begins with careful observation. It is important that detrimental changes in the foot be recognized early and dealt with appropriately while there is still a chance to preserve the integrity of the foot. Failure to understand the normal structure and function of the equine foot and to manage the foot and the horse accordingly can have deleterious effects.

Treatment for WLD varies from sheer mechanics to wall removal and debridement of the affected areas. Mechanical benefits that can produce medical benefits appear to be a major key to therapeutic and pathological shoeing. A well-made strategic plan based on the basic mechanical requirements of the foot can greatly improve the outcome and success of many podiatry cases. Understanding the basics principles of podiatry allows the veterinarian and farrier to aid in the prevention of foot related lameness, maintain a sounder horse, and implement therapeutic shoeing when necessary.

Dr. Raul Bras is a certified journeyman farrier and veterinarian in the podiatry department at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital. A member of the International Equine Veterinarian Hall of Fame, Bras graduated from Ross University and completed the farrier program at Cornell University. He is a partner at Rood and Riddle.

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